More on mourning bars, Chief Lovett and Major Long

Wearing mourning bars to the funeral of a retired police chief last month didn't bring Maj. Gerry Long's career with metro police to a premature end.

Instead, it was the last straw in a clash between two strong-willed people who've worked at the police department for three decades each: Long, 53, and Police Chief Willie Lovett, 62.

News flash: Chief trumps major every time.

Savannah is really a big small town. The walls aren't the only things that have ears. So do the trees, the garbage cans and telephone poles. So when you think you've said something in confidence to someone, especially when it involves your boss's ability, don't be surprised if what you said gets whispered into the wrong ear, is filed away and then, much later, comes back to hit you like a boomerang when you least expect it.

Like Long and the mourning bars.

"At the end of the day he (Lovett) felt this was serious enough to put me on administrative leave and give me a demotion," Long told the Associated Press. "It was a rather surprising turn of events."

Actually, it wasn't in some ways. This case involved trust and loyalty. And a history.

Lovett didn't promote Long to major. Michael Berkow, the chief who preceeded Lovett, did. Majors work at the pleasure of the chief. They don't have civil service-like protection. So if a chief wants to bust a major down to captain, which is a protected rank, that's his choice. And Long had a choice to accept the demotion -- which she didn't. Thus she's retiring next month after 30 years with the department.

The flap over the mourning bars worn by metro officers at Chatham County police chief Tom Sprague's funeral service was the straw that broke the camel's back -- and that dromidary's backbone happened to belong to Lovett.

For the record, here's the metro police department's official policy on mourning bars, the black strips that officers wear over their badges. It went into effect on March 2, 2006, but was revised by Lovett on Dec. 10, 2010. That's three months after the funeral of Pooler Police Chief Butch Chan, who died while on a cruise. That service apparently created some confusion about mourning bars and prompted this revision:

II. MOURNING BARS

A. Mourning Bars are a universal symbol of gratitude worn by sworn officers upon the death of active sworn law enforcement officers

B. SCMPD officers will wear mourning bars affixed to their breast badge under the following conditions.

1. Upon notification of the line of duty death of sworn officer of SCMPD, or any agency within Chatham County. The Chief of Police will designate when the bar is to be worn in relation to deaths of State or Federal law enforcement officers.

C. The Chief of Police will designate when mourning bars will be worn for officers who serve outside of Chatham County.

D. Mourning bars will be either solid black or black with a blue band in the middle.

E. Officers will wear the bar from the time of notification until 2400 hrs. on the day of internment unless specified otherwise by the Chief of Police.

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